Chapter 99 Aunt Lila?
"You'll be serving in the royal nursery today," Aria said with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Prince Theo needs attending while his caretaker is occupied elsewhere."
Lila stopped walking. "I thought I was banned from the nursery. I was told I'm not allowed near…"
"Plans change." Aria's smile widened. "His Majesty has so many rules it's hard to keep track. Just do your duty and don't cause more problems."
It was a trap. Lila could feel it in her bones. But she had no choice except to follow.
The nursery was bright and warm, filled with toys and colorful decorations. And in the center, playing with wooden blocks, was a small boy with black hair and startling green eyes.
The moment Lila entered, something shifted. A flicker of memory trying to surface.
She knew this child. Not from the present, but from somewhere deeper. Some locked part of her mind recognized him with desperate urgency.
"Aunt Lila!" Theo's face lit up with pure joy. He abandoned his blocks and ran toward her with arms outstretched.
The word hit Lila like lightning. Aunt? He'd called her aunt.
Her vision blurred. Images crashed through her mind in rapid succession. Celeste being pregnant, when she give birth how she held him, Loving him, watching him grow.
This was Celeste's son. Her sister had given birth before dying.
But that meant... that meant...
More memories tried to surface. A face still obscured but closer now. Strong hands holding hers. A voice saying words she couldn't quite hear. A feeling of belonging so powerful it made her chest ache.
Someone she'd loved desperately. Someone whose face she still couldn't see but whose presence she could feel echoing through the broken pieces of her memory.
Theo reached her and wrapped his small arms around her legs, hugging tight. "I missed you! Where did you go? Why didn't you visit?"
Tears burned Lila's eyes. She dropped to her knees and pulled the child into her arms, holding him close. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry I left you."
"It's okay." Theo's voice was muffled against her shoulder. "You're here now. Are you staying? Are you coming back to play with me and Papa?"
Papa? The word made something crack inside her chest. Papa meant Adrian. Which meant this child connected her to Adrian in ways she still couldn't fully remember.
"I don't know," Lila whispered, holding Theo tighter. "I don't know if I can stay."
"But you have to." Theo pulled back to look at her face. "Papa's been so sad. He doesn't smile anymore. Not since you went away. You have to come back and make him smile again."
Lila's breath caught. Adrian is sad? The man who'd ordered her beaten and sentenced her to death was sad because she was gone?
Nothing made sense. Nothing aligned with what she'd been told versus what she was feeling.
"Theo, I need you to tell me something." Lila held his small face gently. "Do you remember your mother? Celeste?"
"Mama died." Theo's face grew solemn. "She went to sleep and didn't wake up. Papa said she's with the Goddess now."
"Do you remember me being here before? Before your mama died?"
"You were always here." Theo said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You played with me every day. You read me stories. You made Papa laugh. Then Mama died and everything got scary and you disappeared and Papa got angry all the time."
The pieces were coming together but still didn't form a complete picture. Lila had been in Theo's life constantly. Close enough that he called her aunt. Close enough that he noticed Adrian's moods changing.
Close enough that losing her had affected them both profoundly.
"What am I to your papa?" Lila asked carefully. "How would you describe me?"
Theo tilted his head, thinking. "You're Papa's Lila. That's what he calls you when he talks to himself.
The nursery door slammed open. Adrian stood in the doorway, his face a mask of fury. "What are you doing here? You were banned from this room!"
Lila scrambled to her feet, instinctively putting herself between Adrian and Theo even though logically she knew Adrian would never hurt his own son.
"I was assigned here," she said quickly. "Aria said plans changed. I didn't know I was still banned."
"Papa, don't be angry!" Theo ran to his father and grabbed his hand. "Aunt Lila came back! Aren't you happy?"
Adrian's expression flickered. For just a moment, the fury cracked and something else showed through. A flicker of pain then it slammed shut again behind cold anger.
"Leave," he said flatly to Lila. "Now."
"But Papa…" Theo started.
"Now!" Adrian's voice rose.
Lila fled. She ran from the nursery, from Adrian's inexplicable rage, from Theo's innocent questions that were breaking open truths she wasn't ready to face.
She ran until she reached an empty corridor and collapsed against the wall, gasping for breath.
Maya found her there minutes later. "What happened? I saw you running…"
"I remembered." Lila's voice shook. "Not everything. I remembered Theo, I remembered loving him and I remembered there was someone else I loved too. Someone whose face I still can't see but who I loved so desperately it's destroying me not to remember."
Maya knelt beside her and took her hands. "That's good. Your memories are trying to come back. We just need to keep pushing until…"
"Until what?" Lila pulled away. "Until I remember being that stupid woman from your story? What good does remembering do if all it proves is that I'm exactly the terrible person everyone says I am?"
"You're not terrible." Maya's voice was fierce. "It's Destiny Lila, sometimes we can't change that.“
"Destiny?" Lila stood up, her expression hardening. "If my memory of my past is so bad then It's better this way. It's better I don't remember. Better I just survive this punishment and stay far away from Adrian and Theo and all of it."
She walked away before Maya could argue further.
Behind her, Maya remained kneeling, her mind racing. Lila was starting to remember. But she was interpreting everything through the lens of guilt and shame that had been planted by her enemies.
If Maya wanted to save her, she needed to help Lila remember the
whole truth. Not just fragments that could be twisted into confirmation of her supposed crimes.